[Vtx531]

I mowed half the lawn last night and ran out of daylight. Been a busy week and that's about twice as long between mows as I would have liked but it doesn't seem to be chopping it off too horribly. Still getting a nice cut with the sharp blades, side discharge, and deck pitched...even with it being long and full blown seedhead time. Perhaps looks a little dry but I think it might just be the seedhead situation.

 

[Butter]

What mower do you pitch the deck on? SR or Timemaster? One notch lower in front?

 

[Vtx531]

What mower do you pitch the deck on? SR or Timemaster? One notch lower in front?

Timemaster - yes one notch lower in front. Could be beneficial on both or any lawn mower?

I finished the mowjob that I started last night. I like how the timemaster really throws the clippings and spreads them out nicely.

 

[Vtx531]

I mowed tonight. Everything is going steady. Sort of boring but I'll take it! LOTS of seedheads in the front yard still. Many in back too but not as much. Weeds are very few.

I finished just before it got dark. Low-light photo:

 

[Jeff_MI84]

I'm guessing you didn't get all that rain last night over on your side of the state?

 

[Vtx531]

I'm guessing you didn't get all that rain last night over on your side of the state?

Things are dry here. I don't think we've gotten any rain for a while.

I mowed this morning. It had been a while because I was gone for work.

I turned on the sprinkler system. No more water boycott but I intend to only turn on the sprinklers when it gets dry like it is now. And no rain in the near forecast.

I had five Hunter PGP heads that were not rotating properly and getting stuck. I replaced three of them and decided to cut one open because this keeps happening to me. I expected the gears the be worn out of full of dirt but that doesn't seem to be the case.

I think maybe the rubber seal at the top in the middle is getting dry or stuck or something. There is a weep hole in that cavity and some of the heads have a nice steady light flow of water coming out. Does it keep the center part lubed with the water flow? I sprayed some pb blaster (probably make the rubber get messed up but I tried silicone and it wasnt enough force or pressure) into the weep hole and the remaining two broken ones seem to be working again but still slow. Very annoying problem to have this happening every season with many sprinkler heads and I'm still not really sure of the problem.

 

[Wile]

I have been keeping up on my watering, but neighbors are starting to go dormant. I have some areas near the sidewalk that are checking out. The wind did not help the last few days…

 

[Vtx531]

The lawn has definitely declined in quality the last week or two...

I've been lightly watering early morning and early evening - not enough to keep up but as much as I feel like doing right now. Better than nothing. Here is a photo opposite the sun that shows weak spots in my lawn. Maybe from the grub problem last year?

I got the 42" Zero Turn all fixed up and did a test run today - it did a good job. I set the blade height at 3" above the concrete. Not exactly sure how this compares to my previous actual HOC from the 30" mower but it should be close.

Weak lawn spot near the corner. Maybe something going on underneath the soil because that weak spot goes across the property line.

Side view of the back yard.

 

[jskierko]

Definitely looks like it's under some drought stress. We've had less than 2" of rain here in Indy in May (less than half of normal) and I've notice quite a bit of stress from the lack of precipitation.

 

[Vtx531]

Definitely looks like it's under some drought stress. We've had less than 2" of rain here in Indy in May (less than half of normal) and I've notice quite a bit of stress from the lack of precipitation.

Wow, this weather! Great pool/beach/boat weather. Not so great for grass.

I never dug out the grass where I put in the bed edging and have not mowed it. So it is very tall. And still turning brown and looking dry. So much for letting grass grow tall to survive the heat. I think the 1/3rd rule is the main thing. I meant to snap a photo of that area but I forgot so I'll get it next post.

I need to put down my first inaugural application of grub pesticide but it's supposed to be watered in...hmm...

 

[Vtx531]

Trying to keep the grass alive...been watering a lot but obviously it needs more.

The zero turn seems to be having a little engine trouble. It was hard to start and no fuel. It appeared to be that the fuel filter was clogged so I changed that out and it fixed the fuel problem but still not running good, better with the choke on. It starting smoking a bit so I immediately stopped and noticed the right side valve cover was hotter to the touch than the left side. It is a two barrel carb - I wonder if the right side is clogged up and making it run lean and hotter? Needs further investigation.

 

[Wile]

Do you follow the ET0 for watering? I was noticing spots in my yard were browning out. So, I added basically 4 days of water until they come back and then back to every other day. Some yards here are totally gone though.

 

[Vtx531]

Do you follow the ET0 for watering? I was noticing spots in my yard were browning out. So, I added basically 4 days of water until they come back and then back to every other day. Some yards here are totally gone though.

I have a Bhyve smart timer that uses ET calculations. I am just doing it manually though. My sprinklers put out a very low precip rate (like only .1" per hour) and the things would be running too much for my sanity. I've just been giving it water here and there when I am out sitting on the deck to keep an eye on them a little bit. Like right now actually - Beautiful evening we are having so I'm out back watching sprinklers and updating the lawn journal.

I mowed everything with the 30" today. Still a nicer cut than riding mowers... the grass actually doesn't look bad after a nice fresh mow.

As for the zero turn, I cleaned the carb last night and when I fired it up today, it was blowing a bunch of gas out of the muffler (and smoking). I used a noncontact temp gun on the exhaust manifold and one side was cold so I'm thinking one of the cylinders is not firing and raw fuel is blowing out the exhaust - causing the smoke. Sort of the opposite problem of what I thought it was. I narrowed it down to one of the coils. I swapped them side to side and the non firing cylinder would follow. I never had a coil problem before. More cylinders (two)....more problems... Now waiting for the part to ship from Amazon because none are in stock locally. Thanks a lot local Toro dealer.

 

[Vtx531]

I mowed today. Here is a pic of the backyard that shows where the sprinkler heads are. The dry spots must be related to different grass types or root health (maybe from grubs or drought last year). The drier spots don't correlate to sprinkler coverage, at least how I see it. Not seeing big green circles, or dry spots at corners where the head to head coverage might be a little short.

Same area from a different sunlight angle. Looks a lot better from here.

Bonus:
Yesterday, I removed the transmission from my old 30" Timemaster and tore into it because...why not. It seemed like it was slowly going out on me anyways. There was not much oil in it.

But the internal parts were actually in good shape, including the clutch cones:

I put it all back together, added a "drain plug", and filled up with 5W30:

Holy cow! What a difference! After getting the cable adjusted, it works smooth as butter. I never had a new Timemaster to compare it to but seems like it runs like new. No doubt in my mind I saved the transmission from an early death with low oil. I think the oil makes the clutch engagement smooth as well and provides cooling. Before I did this, it was noisy on occasion, like a chattering metal sound (rhouwroughwah) and jerky on engagement. Sooo smooth now.

Only problem is the oil seals are the same old worn out ones that caused the low oil in the first place. A little dripping and seepage should be okay and I'll refill occasionally as long as it's not too bad. Hope the hot dripping oil doesn't cause brown grass spots but the drips are small.

I tested the temp after I was done mowing and it was in the 160-170s degrees F range. Anyone else have this mower and a temp gun that could check theirs for me so I can have something to compare to? No idea how this will hold up long term but so far, I would definitely recommend this "mod" if you have a noisy/jerky transmission. Only thing different- I would just drill the drain hole with the transmission installed (shop vac metal shavings and drain oil) and not take everything apart.

 

[Vtx531]

And a late evening post for future reference:

I put down the grub preventer tonight just before it got dark in anticipation of rain tomorrow. Setting C on the Lesco. Worked out great to put down two bags (only half the recommended rate because I'm cheap) and a little bit extra to double hit the possible problem areas from last year. I just eyeballed the distance between passes because I didn't go with my mower stripes.

 

[Wile]

Have you tried baby shampoo on the dry spots? It’s pretty cheap and might help re-wet the soil better. We didn’t get much rain today…boo…

 

[Vtx531]

Have you tried baby shampoo on the dry spots? It’s pretty cheap and might help re-wet the soil better. We didn’t get much rain today…boo…

Haven't tried it but something to look into... Has that worked for you? I think I might go back to no watering. I replaced a few sprinkler heads earlier in the year and now I noticed more that are getting stuck. Its a big pain to keep everything going and expense for the water.

I got the zero turn fixed up today. It needed a coil and fuel pump. I mowed with it at 3" and it ran really good. Still not as good of a cut as the 30" Toro though IMO.

 

[Vtx531]

Ya think I'll give up on the irrigation...

I spot sprayed crossbow on clover and broadleafs today. 5oz/ 3 gallons and I added some sort of spray turbocharging stuff I had sitting around at 3 tbs per gallon label rate. Maybe it is some sort of wetting agent? I installed my new handle/valve on my sprayer that I got from eBay in hopes that it would fit and it fit perfectly! Nice.

There is a lot of clover all over. Doesn't look like much from far away but when you walk the lawn and look closely there are a lot of patches. Not many other weeds at all. Walking around and quietly spraying the weeds is pretty relaxing and enjoyable plus the cost is very low.

Small clover spot in the front next to the driveway:

 

[Wile]

I haven’t used it in a while. I have a couple spots I’m going to do it on tomorrow. Two of them get a good amount of water and two them don’t. So it will be easier to see how they change and if they are still repelling water.

 

[Vtx531]

Picked up a cool little mower the other day. Ariens mini zoom. 15hp and 34" cut. It has a Kohler Courage engine and had a lot of leaking oil. I got it home and discovered the case bolts were loosened up as is common on these and yep...a hairline crack in the crankcase. Bummer! But hey, it runs and mows and was $250. Not bad.

The oil leaking has mostly stopped since I tightened up the crankcase cover bolts, just a very light amount of oil from the crack. It could probably use a new valve cover gasket too. I didn't sharpen the blades yet for the first mow but here are the results... The sprinklers have not been run in a while.